Finally, the Colorado Rockies have a good streak to talk about heading into Friday night’s game against the host San Francisco Giants.
The Rockies, who defeated reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale and the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, rallied for a 4-3 victory in Thursday night’s series opener against the Giants.
It marks the first time this season that Colorado has won consecutive games. The Rockies began the season with a league-worst 5-25 record that tied the 2003 Detroit Tigers for the second-worst 30-game start in modern baseball history.
Hunter Goodman singled in Jordan Beck with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of Colorado’s victory on Thursday. Ryan McMahon homered and Brenton Doyle and Alan Trejo also had two hits to lead the Rockies.
The win snapped a 13-game road losing streak for Colorado dating to a March 29 victory at Tampa Bay. It also broke a 12-game losing streak at Oracle Park going back to July 7, 2023.
“It’ll be fun,” McMahon said Thursday post-game on the field when asked what the atmosphere in the locker room would be like. “We’ll enjoy this one and get ready to go tomorrow.”
McMahon started Colorado’s comeback from a 3-1 deficit with a lead-off home run to straight-away center field in the seventh inning off starter Justin Verlander. It snapped a 0-for-35 drought and a 2-for-59 slump for the 2024 All-Star.
“Just doing something to help the team,” McMahon said. “It’s a lonely feeling when you’re doing nothing. It just felt good to do that.”
The Rockies took a 4-3 lead with two runs in the eighth off reliever Tyler Rogers, who had allowed just one earned run in 16 innings entering the contest. Beck tied the score with an RBI double and then scored what proved to be the game-winning run on an opposite-field single to right by Goodman.
“I think just good approach,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of Rogers’ struggles on Thursday. “Hit them the other way. Sometimes that’s going to happen. … It’s so unexpected the way he’s pitched this year. You’ve got to give them credit. They had a good approach off him and strung some hits together, which doesn’t happen too often.”
San Francisco will turn to left-hander Robbie Ray (3-0, 3.73 ERA) to start Friday’s game. The Giants are undefeated in Ray’s six starts this season.
Ray is 5-6 with a 5.53 ERA in 19 career starts against the Rockies but hasn’t faced them since an 8-7 loss on Aug. 26, 2020, while a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Veteran right-hander Antonio Senzatela (1-4, 5.22), who is 5-2 with a 4.31 ERA in 13 career appearances (11 starts) against the Giants, will start for Colorado.
The Rockies will try for their first three-game winning streak since Sept. 12-14 of last season.
“Baseball, any team can beat anybody,” Melvin said. “It’s not like football, where it’s once a week. Yeah, they’re off to a slow start … but they got some big hits late in the game. Typically, that’s going to win games for you in low-scoring games.”
–Field Level Media
